Itamaraty demands an explanation from Hungary for hosting Bolsonaro in the embassy

The Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government called on the Hungarian ambassador to Brazil, Miklós Halmai, this Monday (25), to provide clarifications on the 2-day hosting of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) at the Hungarian embassy, in Brasília, days after the politician and his allies were the target of an operation by the Federal Police (PF).

Halmai was not received at the Itamaraty Palace by Chancellor Mauro Vieira, but by the head of the department responsible for Europe, Maria Luisa Escorel, according to the portal UOL. The objective was to make clear Brazil’s dissatisfaction with the shelter offered.

The call takes place on the same day that the newspaper The New York Times revealed that Bolsonaro slept in the Hungarian embassy, ​​during Carnival, 4 days after being the target of a PF operation and having his passport confiscated by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

The stay was an apparent request for asylum, according to the report, as Bolsonaro could not be arrested by Brazilian authorities inside a foreign embassy (as happened with Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, who lived for 7 years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, despite an extradition request from the United States and a lawsuit that the activist was facing in the United Kingdom, for not presenting himself to the British justice system).

Bolsonaro is being investigated for a series of crimes in Brazil, including an attempted coup d’état in 2022, after losing the elections to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). Last week, the former Brazilian president was indicted for the crimes of criminal association and entering false data into the public system, in the investigation into the falsification of Covid-19 vaccine certificates.

The former president’s defense confirmed the stay and said that it was “by invitation”, to “maintain contacts with authorities from the friendly country” and debate “the political scenarios of the two nations”. The note from DB Tesser and Paulo Amador da Cunha Bueno Advogados states that, “in the days he was staying at the Magyar embassy, ​​upon invitation, the former Brazilian president spoke with numerous authorities from the friendly country, updating the political scenarios of the two nations” . “Any other interpretations that go beyond the information provided here constitute an evident fictional work, unrelated to the reality of the facts, and are, in practice, another list of fake news“.

Stay at the embassy

At the Hungarian embassy in Brasília, Bolsonaro arrived accompanied by two security guards and was served by the Hungarian ambassador to Brazil and members of his team. Security camera images obtained by the American newspaper show the former Brazilian president arriving at the Hungarian embassy on the night of February 12, Carnival Monday, and remaining there until the afternoon of the 14th, Ash Wednesday.

Four days earlier, the PF had launched operation Tempus Veritatis, with authorization from the STF, to investigate the existence of a criminal organization that had acted in an attempted coup d’état and abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law during the Bolsonaro government, to keep him in power after his election defeat.

In addition to Bolsonaro, the operation targets were the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto (who ended up arrested for illegal possession of a weapon), and four former ministers (of which three are retired military personnel): general Walter Braga Netto, former Minister of Defense and Civil House (and candidate for vice president on Bolsonaro’s ticket in 2022); the general Augusto Heleno, former minister of the Institutional Security Office (GSI); the general Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former Minister of Defense and Army Commander; and the former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres.

The PF confiscated the former Brazilian president’s passport and banned him from having contact with other people being investigated, in addition to arresting two of his former advisors (Filipe Martinsformer special advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, and Marcelo CâmaraArmy colonel and former special advisor to the politician) and two other special forces soldiers. Tércio Arnaud Thomaza former advisor to Bolsonaro identified as one of the main names in the so-called “hate office”, was also the target of searches.

Bolsonaro went to the Hungarian embassy on the same day he posted a video on his social networks calling on his supporters to take part in an event on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, to demonstrate political strength.